Produced by the Mirisch Company and based on the novel The Bank Robber by Giles Tippette, the supporting cast features Gary Grimes, Charles Martin Smith and Ron Howard.

Injured and near death, he is found and mended back to health by three impressionable youths who are lifelong friends—Wil (Gary Grimes), Tod (Charles Martin Smith), and Les (Ron Howard).

The three boys eventually make it to a Texas town, hungry and despondent, and in a moment of inspiration attempt to rob a bank.

In the process Tod accidentally kills a man, and Les drops all the money, but they manage to escape and cross the Rio Grande into Mexico.

Arriving in the Mexican town of Piedras Negras penniless and unable to find any work, Wil pawns his grandfather’s antique watch for $10, enough to buy them a meal.

The boys stay in Mexico and attempt to go 'straight' working a succession of menial jobs, before again coming across Spikes who offers to take them into his "gang."

Arriving back from the journey, Wil enters the church and encounters a man who says Les sent him, and that he's been sorely wounded, shot four times by 2 men, bounty hunters by the name of Morton and Spikes.

Wil demands he stand up so he can kill him "fair," but Spikes throws his hat at him and pulls a hidden gun, shooting him in the chest.

"[3] Vincent Canby of The New York Times was not impressed: "It's a movie without a center, with no coherent tone, directed by Richard Fleischer, fresh from such triumphs as The Don Is Dead and Soylent Green.